Hotel accidentally renames meatballs 'Paul is dead' in translation gaffe

The meatballs at a hotel buffet took on a surprising new name
Hend Amry / Twitter
Harriet Pavey31 August 2017

An Iraqi hotel accidentally renamed meatballs “Paul is dead” in a translation mishap.

A dish of meatballs at the hotel buffet was labelled with the ominous alongside the correct Arabic word for the dish at the Erbil International Hotel.

Hotel guest Hend Amry shared the translation fail on Twitter with an explanation.

She said: “The Arabic spells out a transliteration of ‘meat ball’ in English – which sounds like ‘mayit baul’, or dead Paul.”

The tweet went viral: it was retweeted more than 16,000 times.

This is not the first time Hend Amry has spotted an Arabic translation fail with a sign which read "sale of chicken murder":

While others shared their favourite mis-translations:

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